1sentence challenges
by mercury dagger
Summary: Five sets of fifty sentences each. Mostly set in the prelude/canon of my subsequent story, "The Libertine's Gambit." Delicious ZADR. ;D Complete!
1. Alpha

Howdy. I'm Felix, and I like improbable pairings. These come from the 1sentence community on LJ-land.

Invader Zim © Jhonen Vasquez. I hope you enjoy them. c:

* * *

α

#01 - Comfort

— and how _dare _he presume invaders needed anything so weak and simple as comfort.

#02 - Kiss

He nearly passes out, of course, when after such a long time apart, the uncouth human boy greets him not with the customary acerbic formalities but with a soft, unsure kiss on the lips.

#03 - Soft

It's strange – and he will not lie, it makes him almost want to kill Dib on the spot – but repetition brings familiarity, and in the end the fleeting pain and strange happiness of this thing outweighed everything else.

#04 - Pain

Being one of the human worm-babies, of course, he cannot yet quite comprehend the full effect pain can have on an Irken – but, Zim reflects with a grin, there will be plenty of time for that in due course.

#05 - Potatoes

He watches, smiling shrewdly, while Dib looks on to GIR in an unhidden, unashamed horror: he had never before seen something do that with a baked potato.

#06 - Rain

No – _no_ – once is a coincidence, but twice is already a cliché, and he has no wish to be so subjugated to the stupid human's notions of feelings and sweetness and mush _any more_!

#07 - Chocolate

The first time he sees Zim eat chocolate, it's outright alarming: for someone otherwise so terrified of human food he could down truffles and bars and candy cups like a vacuum.

#08 - Happiness

Their cultures are different, of course, their emotions and biologies perhaps even fundamentally incompatible – but no matter how indirectly or illogically so they are always in tune with the happiness of the other.

#09 - Telephone

He's standing around, minding his own business, hanging exasperatedly onto his cell phone in the (probably vain) hopes of reaching Zim, when out of nowhere he hears the heart-stopping scrabble of spider legs across the cool mall floor and collapses underneath the alien's surprising weight; clearly there was another lesson in order of "what not to do at the mall."

#10 - Ears

Zim just gives him a wicked smile, though, and says teasingly from his perch at the end of the bed, "You know, obviously, that we can hear – but you'll have to do some field research to figure out how, you filthy worm-baby."

#11 - Name

It is the first time he's managed to carry on a half-decent conversation in Irken, and he's so proud of himself he could burst, but his heart nearly stops when this experience becomes the first time he hears Zim – the real Zim, not the translator circuits in the pak – tell him softly, in his own tongue, "Good job, Dib."

#12 - Sensual

Even after everything else, it – it just seemed so strange a word to use on Zim, even if it could fit him like his own skin.

#13 - Death

Well, yes, death and destruction were a bit of his métier – invasion, doom, pitiful humans, etc. – but Dib seemed not to remember in his objections that he was also not bound by human morals.

#14 - Sex

The first time they talked about it, in fact, Zim had laughed – what an utterly inefficient system, he had said, and how ugly are your human bodies underneath all those clothes!

#15 - Touch

Touch, however, he seemed to have a much healthier respect for: touch, Dib would learn, could send Irkens into ravening madness or paroxysms of delight with a far more fine and subtle control than could be found for humans.

#16 - Weakness

"Invaders have no weaknesses," he said coldly, folding the too-many-fingered hands in his own.

#17 - Tears

He didn't cry, no – neither of them did very often, and Zim far less than Dib – but the realization had already come to both of them, and there was no way it could be taken back.

#18 - Speed

The way he scuttles across surfaces with those ungodly spider legs, Dib swears, will _never_ not be terrifying.

#19 - Wind

There's a little winding sound as Zim punches in whatever commands into the pak's controls, but even with all of his preparation and summoned bravado and advantage his height confers Zim still floors him in less than ten seconds; evidently he showed his surprise more obviously than usual, because he was then summarily explained that "invaders are trained from birth in unarmed combat and you're lucky I didn't kill you – you can't always count on your equipment to save you, pitiful _human_!"

#20 - Freedom

"You have to realize," he continues, almost bored, "that it's a bit of a foreign concept for someone born into the Irken empire."

#21 - Life

"We're not like you," he reminded Dib sharply, "either in biology or in culture, and you'd do well to remember that – what is it to you if our highest calling in life sounds like an oxymoron?"

#22 - Jealousy

From what he's managed to gather, their concept of love is a lot closer to the human one of possession: yes, there's the soft side of it, the tender-but-not-gentle (never gentle) side that we can know very well, but hidden under a great deal of obsession and jealousy sharpened and intensified a thousandfold.

#23 - Hands

The first time the Dib-thing asks to see his hands – his real hands – he's almost surprised by the positively stupid feelings it caused him; after a moment of hesitation, he pulls the black gloves off and lays them on top of the boy's bed, anyway.

#24 - Taste

He – he can't help it – he's so excited and impatient there's no more waiting to be had: he leans over and kisses the smooth green skin of Zim's cheek, lingering only seconds, mouth dry, heart racing, skin tingling, and he savors the few precious moments before Zim wakes up and gives him a half-irritable snarl.

#25 - Devotion

No, he wouldn't admit it – no Irken could suffer their pride to be so impugned – but, well, after years of paranoia and second-guessing, he was finally starting to see that Zim's devotion, no matter how strange or violent or weird, had not wavered.

#26 - Forever

"The promise about your heart is good forever," he said icily, "and anyone else who so much as lays a hand on you outside of myself will suffer the same miserable end."

#27 - Blood

He tries for a halfhearted moment to protest that blood is made up mostly of water – but Zim smiles a wicked grin and licks the tips of his fingers, evidently quite pleased at the whimper he manages to incite in doing so.

#28 - Sickness

With Zim's paranoia of Earth diseases Dib had always been thoroughly scrubbed down every time he came anew into the base: the only benefit of this interminable trip on the Super-Voot was the fact that he was no longer assaulted daily with gallons of spray disinfectant.

#29 - Melody

Yes, Irken music was strange – even if Zim would always point out the same of Earth's – but it always made him smile to hear Zim humming unconsciously.

#30 - Star

He goes down the list with alarming efficiency for a species who had more or less abandoned physical writing – he stars nearly every other answer, giving out scathing commentary on his penmanship or his grammar or his register and rolling his eyes when the illiterate human worm-baby sees fit to complain.

#31 - Home

"Mmh, going home will be a tricky proposition," he says, only half-paying attention while clicking around on the monitor, "especially since your stupid Earth gravity has quite frankly screwed any height inhibition they might have intended for me."

#32 - Confusion

Again, it's not the first time he's felt the strangely heavy weight of Zim on top of him – but it is definitely the first time he's allowed himself to so openly acknowledge just how confused it's making him.

#33 - Fear

"The Irken armada is the finest fighting force in this galaxy – we have no need for your pitiful human fear!"

#34 - Lightning/Thunder

It seems like it came out of a teenage romance novel: he notices the spider legs come clattering up over glass, a flash of light cracking across the night sky like a whip, before he sees Zim scurrying in through the small window to rest, terrified, panting like he'd run a marathon and slightly steaming, on top of the server towers.

#35 - Bonds

Their bonds in the end went deeper than anything either of their species knew – perhaps imperfectly, but completely.

#36 - Market

Naturally, the translation sector of the pak isn't always perfect with idioms: even now, after years on Earth, Dib will still occasionally receive such sage advice as "An apple a day will keep the chickens at market."

#37 - Technology

Of course, Dib still gets excited over the latest technotoys – even if Zim mutters (every time) that Irken babies have more complicated playthings.

#38 - Gift

"Here," he said softly, "think of it as a gift – that's really what it is, but like hell I'll admit that to a human."

#39 - Smile

After such long acquaintance, he has come to learn that Zim's smile rarely means anything good.

#40 - Innocence

"Well," he says thoughtfully, almost kindly, suspiciously free of any hint of sarcasm, "shippies do tend to be a bit dull and devoid of intrigue – but you'll be taken for an outright provincial at this rate."

#41 - Completion

He gets the message in the middle of classes – "the ship is _done_, it's amazing, come and see for yourself!" – and the wording is so innocent and excited he's half-tempted to ask who had sent this message and what had they done with the real Zim.

#42 - Clouds

It's childish for Dib – but on Irk, he explains, the weather is much different, and seeing the interesting forms and shapes clouds can take here is exciting.

#43 - Sky

And when they get there, as Zim had taunted him, it was him who stood out, and not in the good way; the red sky and sharply dry, acrid air had set him off-kilter as soon as they landed, and Zim had already had to go into the little pack and calibrate it for the increase in gravity, but the wide berth and semi-silence they granted him as the toy of whichever elite Zim was impersonating unnerved him.

#44 - Heaven

They sat there in silence for a while, then, neither of them really sure if this constituted an 'argument' or not, before Zim finally conceded softly, "Well, this 'heaven' sounds like a nice place, I'll give you that."

#45 - Hell

"But I'll also point out," he said, tossing himself onto his side to face Dib, "that your hell sounds infinitely more interesting."

#46 - Sun

GIR is busily frying up what Dib fervently hopes is a full, fatty, sugary breakfast – it seems like anything but the first day after effectively moving in to Zim's house, and there's such a prevailing sense of surreality he can't even question how well the little robot knows how to fry perfect sunny side-up eggs.

#47 - Moon

"Three big ones, four small ones," Zim corrects him, not even batting an eye as he steers coolly through the space lanes and Dib inches ever closer to insanity from this obscene treasonous plan of study.

#48 - Waves

Dib still could not believe this was happening – not only had fate seen somehow fit to give him a vacation with his family, but that same family – the Professor, mostly – was now nearly insisting he bring the 'nice foreign green boy' with them to the beach!

#49 - Hair

The elite gear would only work so long as they kept its uses fairly infrequent – which, he explained, was why "the brilliant disguise from the Earth invasion would prove once again so _incredibly _useful!"

#50 - Supernova

He had managed to get almost halfway through, crafting the most beautiful of sentences, telling the whole of the internet in a drunkenly silver tongue how Sir Dibulon had gallantly rescued the young green princess and had now carted her off to his castle for a night full of champagne and thanksgiving and rosepetal supernovas – he had almost gotten to the "Do I dazzle you?" when he heard a blood-curdling war shriek and felt Zim beat him with GIR squarely over the back of the head.


	2. Beta

β

#01 – Walking

After they land, Zim spends the first few weeks touring him around this particular sector of the Irken capital world – and when the jury-rigged translator gives the academy the unexpected title of "Agoge," he is struck by how smartly and sharply it probably makes sense.

#02 – Waltz

He sees Dib dancing, however awkwardly, and however unhappily, with the strange girl who had sat behind him, he could do nothing better than fume and seethe and rage in the shadows, and swear she would die by his hand.

#03 – Wishes

They see it much differently than humans do – it's much more intimate and private to share one, for them, than it is for the humans who may thoughtlessly do so a thousand times a day – and the first time Dib idly mentions a wish to Zim he doesn't realize at first just what that implies to an Irken in a relationship.

#04 – Wonder

When Dib finally accustoms himself to the commands, laid out and designed for a completely different species, he's ecstatic – even if Zim duly rolls his eyes and tells him it's no miracle.

#05 – Worry

Perhaps it is only human and weak, but when Zim fights – as Zim does for him, silently and secretly – he does worry.

#06 – Whimsy

He had just stumbled upon GIR's collection of the little whimsical pictures, done in a crude imitation of the foul human style and featuring himself and the Dib-stink doing that appalling thing with the lips, when he hears someone walking behind him and whips around – and inadvertently shows Dib the same drawings.

#07 – Waste/Wasteland

The first time he sees Zim on Mars like that, the blot of purple against rusty wasteland – he feels again the unwelcome intrusion of jealousy.

#08 – Whiskey and rum

They've been floating through space for a long while when Zim breaks out the little bottles – firstly, he explains, he doesn't care that it's illegal on earth, and secondly, this is what you humans do for celebrations, yes?

#09 – War

"You're lucky my mission was never really given any importance," he admits, furious and dejected, "as should the armada actually bring war to your pathetic planet you'd be lucky to give a whole ten minutes' resistance."

#10 – Weddings

Dib gets back only late at night from the wedding – he hadn't even known he had extended family to _be_ married – but as he collapses, exhausted, onto his bed, he hears the clicking of spider-legs and feels the sudden heavy weight drop on top of him, and in the faint light of the computers sees Zim give a positively depraved grin.

#11 – Birthday

Celebrating his birthday is a strange custom – not in the least because it took him a moment to reckon it in an Earth date – but when Dib shows up with a box of donuts, well, he can't say it's a _bad_ one.

#12 – Blessing

No, he'll try to explain, as Zim clatters past a church and he tries to defend his poor human traditions, it's not that he entirely believes in the first place – but it's a nice idea, isn't it?

#13 – Bias

In the beginning, Zim's constant insistence on his own superiority tired quickly – but nothing had managed to change it.

#14 – Burning

All of a sudden, then, he hears his sister's voice, and his heart nearly jumps out of his chest; Zim seems to have no care for the disaster about to happen, but when it's all he can do to get his jeans back on before Gaz creaks the door open and an irresistible vermilion burn spreads over his cheeks.

#15 – Breathing

He tries, on the rare occasions that Zim turns on autopilot and indulges in his luxury of sleep, to listen for the sound of the invader's breathing; it takes a few tries, but eventually he is allowed a rare glimpse of the sound so fragile and small that he hardly notices to what he is witness.

#16 – Breaking

He would laugh at their insipid design and brutish execution, but for however unspeakably primitive they are human weapons still do an acceptable job of lacerating flesh and breaking bones.

#17 – Belief

They often discuss the idea that authority comes sacrosanct, on the interminable voyage to Irk – he tries to explain how firmly-held this belief is among humans, but wonders if he should laugh when he hears Zim insist that "it's only treason if you fail."

#18 – Balloon

When he finally arrives, though, he has to admit that the new ship is quite elegant: rather than the almost childish balloon-shaped cruiser he remembered there was now an elegant night-black swoop.

#19 – Balcony

There's a nice balcony in whoever's apartments these are, but every time he tries to go out to get a look at this sector Zim angrily swats him back inside – it's too far along in the mission for them to be discovered now.

#20 – Bane

He glares banefully at the little vinyl curtain, the only thing keeping him separated from tormenting Dib even further, and silently, furiously curses the burns caused by this "water" and the absurd fact that the humans _bathed_ in it.

#21 – Quiet

He will not admit it – he will never admit it, never aloud, never in silence – but if Dib were to not be there, well, he supposes he would – _eugh_ – _miss_ him.

#22 – Quirks

It's interesting, once they drop the defensive walls, to see all the other's little quirks and tics and curiosities – even Zim, stoic and laconic though he may have remained, couldn't deny that the Dib-thing was interesting under the initially unappealing shell.

#23 – Question

He puts up with Dib's inane questioning not out of any outright compassion for human stupidity, but rather only for the sake of the mission once they get back to Irk – or so he would say to others.

#24 – Quarrel

He likes fighting with Zim rather more now than he did before – the fact of their closeness somehow intensifies the fervor with which Zim comes after him, the precision and intensity with which he seeks vengeance, even on his supposed so-called lover, but it makes things exciting.

#25 – Quitting

"It isn't quitting," he insists, with a furious Zim seething at him from behind the captain's chair, "it's a – a creative redirection of objective."

#26 – Jump

He hears Zim curse as he climbs up off of the sinking hoverfloat, but despite the addition of his own little pack he still has to rely on his own legs to jump up – it's a pleasant surprise when he feels the smooth black glove around his hand, pulling him up and keeping him from falling down the bottomless pit beneath.

#27 – Jester

Dib is a bit surprised, needless to say, when in one of his regular transmissions back to GIR on earth Zim informs his little robot that the position of court jester will eventually need filling – from the racket he's making Dib surmises that this is even better than owning the moon.

#28 – Jousting

"You'll have to do better than that," Zim says disdainfully as the hologram disappears and Dib realizes he's no longer in a combat arena, fighting for his life.

#29 – Jewel

Jewels aren't very valuable on Irk, Dib finds; Zim, in particular, has a hard time wrapping his mind around why anyone would want a nicely compressed piece of dirt.

#30 – Just

"It's just…?" he whispers softly, teasingly and intently, as he pulls Dib down further to straddle his hips.

#31 – Smirk

It's only as he pushes Dib down intently and irresistibly to the floor of the Tallests' quarters – he realizes Zim really does smirk a lot.

#32 – Sorrow

Irkens, he has gathered, very rarely cry, even when under great duress or sorrow – he has to get Zim drunk to admit it, yes, but it is apparently much easier for them to do so when happy.

#33 – Stupidity

He thinks it strange when Dib is offended by insults – he was a scientist before the glorious calling to invasion, and he would assume that as one scientist to another Dib would understand.

#34 – Serenade

Even during the final stages of working on the Super-Voot, Dib insists on blaring the primitive noise that passes for music on this planet – it's all well and good while he was still wearing the headphones but when Dib starts singing aloud he can't even hear himself think.

#35 – Sarcasm

It's not the sarcasm that bothers him anymore – even when it's at the expense of Earth and humanity itself – but whenever he notices its absence he can't help but worry that something's terribly amiss.

#36 – Sordid

He watches, nonplussed, content in his ignorance until he hears Zim murmuring something about how "Purple and Red were the kinkiest bastards and no doubt about it" – he remembers then all of the unspoken communication Zim had explained about earlier and suddenly all this reviewing of the now-Tallests' academy battle tapes acquires the sleaziest sheen.

#37 – Soliloquy

He made the mistake of calling Zim a coward only once; later, even after the kiss, he had brought up the fool subject of honor and bravery and was in turn subjected to a lecture on how you, stupid human, could never understand how Irkens treated these things.

#38 – Sojourn

"We've overstayed our welcome here," he says, by way of a return greeting, flicking switches and fingers dancing over the control panel with alarming urgency as Dib starts to hear the sudden alarming sound of lasers.

#39 – Share

Dib is right when he says it that way – it's true, after all – but no invader will suffer such loss of face as proving an inferior species correct; he reluctantly gives him half of the burrito, cursing himself and the human and this despicable planet, if only to prove that the concept of sharing is not _totally_ foreign.

#40 – Solitary

They set out for Irk completely alone – GIR is still on Earth, confined to the base and probably raising unholy hell while he's at it – but finally Dib has the chance to inspect and inquire and commit to memory every last piece of this foreign, strange world, and it feels without a doubt like one of his best dreams coming true.

#41 – Nowhere

He can practically hear the Super-Voot screeching to a halt, even in the utter void of space, as they change course almost on a dime – but over that he notices only Zim and his oaths that there is nowhere the Massive can outrun him.

#42 – Neutral

"As if," he says dismissively, waving a hand as he shuttles them down to the base proper.

#43 – Nuance

"There are thousands of subtle nuances you'll miss in speech and body language if we try to pass you off as an Irken once we land – therefore," he adds with a wicked smile, "it simply follows we'll have to pass you as my prisoner of war."

#44 – Near

He wakes up in the middle of the night – or what passes for night, in the featureless void of space – and is terrified for a moment that he had not yet quite escaped the dream; but Zim is there, as always, piloting the ship softly and silently on its course, and he lowers himself back down to the bed without even a word, inexplicably and uncomfortably reassured by the fact of Zim being so near.

#45 – Natural

He wonders why the Dib-human doesn't more often conduct himself as bravely as he had in the first few weeks after they met – it seems as if the Dib possesses a sort of natural ferocity, so strange and unfamiliar in others of the species, but he so rarely taps into it.

#46 – Horizon

The artificial gravity on the Super-Voot is, as all Irken technology, complete and without flaw, but for the first few days after leaving Earth Zim must put up with the insufferable human's "motion sickness" and his species' pitiful ineptitude in the absence of a visible horizon.

#47 – Valiant

In his own demented way, yes – Zim is, in his own way, valiant.

#48 – Virtuous

"A 'virtuous' Irken aspires only to two things," he deadpanned, "and I can assure you that your human virtues don't enter into any of it."

#49 – Victory

They believe, Zim explained to him, that there is but one greater victory than glory in death.

#50 – Defeat

And so the die has been cast: he swoops down on the hotwired grav-bike, the metal creaking and groaning with strain and the sharp alien air screaming in his ears, but he doesn't care, he cannot care, because if Zim were to die here – he will at least ensure their deaths become worthy of legend.


	3. Gamma

Woo! Well, here's the third set of these. I hope you enjoy them!

And as always, Invader Zim © Jhonen Vasquez. c:

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γ

#01 - Ring

He sees Dib wearing it quite often, and being shiny and small it attracts his attention; once while the Dib-thing is sleeping he slips it off of his warm, too-many-fingered hand and tries it on for himself, and decides that were it not for the strange "M-O-M" engraved on the inside it would have been an excellent fit.

#02 - Hero

He will be known forever after as an emperor, a glorious Tallest, a hero – and, well, he supposes the Dib-monkey can be found a place in his histories, too.

#03 - Memory

"It's not an entirely communal memory," he explained, "as we don't – we don't remember everything every Irken has ever done, that would be _creepy_."

#04 - Box

It's taken him a long time to get used to acting so human – but still he shows up on Dib's doorstep with a nicely wrapped box, black with blue ribbon and with absolutely no eye-removal machines held inside, and nearly forces himself to spit out the two most dreaded words: "Happy birthday."

#05 - Run

The terrible specter of realization washes over his face as he realizes what he's done, but Zim gives him only the mad fool grin in return; Dib turns and runs like hell.

#06 - Hurricane

"Your earth-weather is despicable," Zim growls out from under a blanket, having just barely made it indoors before the heavens opened above him.

#07 - Wings

"Wings equal drag, human," he says dismissively, as a dejected Dib starts (for the umpteenth time) redesigning the new shell for the Super-Voot.

#08 - Cold

"I _just_ want you to be _clean_!" Zim shrieks, rushing forward and dousing Dib in a cold bucket of cleaning solution before he could even realize he'd been dirty.

#09 - Red

"It's not only you who has _feelings_ at stake here," he says softly, almost tamely; an instant wave of realization washes over Dib and he looks suddenly and awkwardly over to Purple, who can't help but laugh at the human-child's oblivious innocence of what half the empire already knew.

#10 - Drink

The secret, he finds, is not so much that they need alcohol but that they need it only in small amounts: a drop of beer is enough to make weaker Irkens tipsy, while an entire cocktail is enough to lay all but the Tallest down for the count.

#11 - Midnight

It's midnight when he hears the clatter against his window and is rudely awoken out of the first uninterrupted sleep he's known in a while; he hardly registers that it's Zim, telling him to wake up, idiot human, wake _up_ – the cannon has already started, the bombardment is happening now, the armada has come.

#12 - Temptation

The only way to get rid of temptation is to give in to it; this is a saying, albeit a human one, of which Zim has never disapproved.

#13 - View

En route – everything happened _en route_, on this miserable interminable trip he wasn't sure why he'd signed on for in the first place – Zim takes advantage of his own free time to build for him a neat pair of goggles to simulate Irken vision; he slips them on nervously, only after Zim does the same to prove again that there's nothing that will rip out his eyeballs, but when he finally does he cannot help but feel as if he's seeing everything for the first time.

#14 - Music

Zim only tuts at his feeble defense of Earth "culture," insisting that when this business is done he will take him to a Vortian opera and then, Dib-stink, you will cease to be amazed by that tone-deaf caterwauling you call "music."

#15 - Silk

Irkens don't often engage in the pleasure of sleep, it being both technically unnecessary and seen (if tolerated) as somewhat of a degenerate luxury; Tallests, though, are nothing if not degenerate luxuriants, and Dib can finally appreciate this as he rolls over one morning, inclines his head against Zim's shoulder, and buries himself under the byssus-fine sheets.

#16 - Cover

Warmth, in fact, functions much in the same way as sleep: while the Elite pride themselves on living like Spartans, and even lesser soldiers still try to emulate their rejection of such 'soft' comforts as pillows and blankets, in the private realm of his personal quarters the Tallest is denied nothing.

#17 - Promise

"Remember my promise," Zim shoots back irritably as Dib clambers half-way into the chute. "Only _I _am to have the pleasure of killing you."

#18 - Dream

He likes this human thing, this "dreaming" – he has a vague inkling that he's experienced it before, but the subject deserves further research – preferably conducted in that sinfully delicious Vortian bed he's ordered for his chambers with the Dib-thing snoring at his side.

#19 - Candle

When he first sees Zim go through the ritual he's surprised – he's certain that Irkens would have moved past such things as candles by now.

#20 - Talent

When he learns of Zim's reassignment, he can't help but reflexively disagree – even with all of his misdirection which seemed incompetence, even before, well, all of _this_, the crazy green alien had been nothing if not exceptionally skilled.

#21 - Silence

They both stand in a sort of stunned silence, then, Dib trying not to pass out as Zim bristles and pulls himself up defensively to his full height, before the human boy whispers, "That…that was a kiss, wasn't it?"

#22 - Journey

He turns around, then, ready to start the trip back to his base in solitude when suddenly he hears Dib's voice invite him sheepishly inside – well, he had been thoughtful enough to walk Dib home, after all, and what kind of well-bred invader would he be, to decline such hospitality?

#23 - Fire

"First finger is target lock, second is fire," he explains briskly, holding his own hands over Dib's as they go over the gunner controls, "but you humans have so many otherwise useless fingers I've been able to add you some nifty new features that may help you aspire to the level of Glorious Zim."

#24 - Strength

The legs of the pak are, he always forgets, much stronger than the flimsy little toothpicks of metal they appear to be; he is reminded particularly of this when he decides to go exploring alone on Irk and Zim – "As usual, idiot human!" – must come to carry him out of whatever trouble he's brought upon his own gigantic head.

#25 - Mask

He stands expectantly outside of the little bubble, waiting almost on tenterhooks (though he would never admit it to Dib) to see the result of his mad little experiment – he's nearly floored, though, when the sight that emerges from the disguise generator is another almost-perfect elite, and despite all of the human's annoying questions and protests and demands for a mirror he is suddenly struck by the fact that he finds his shipmate unquestionably attractive like this.

#26 - Ice

He often wonders how often Zim can contradict himself – one of those times is pleasantly and rudely interrupted, though, when he realizes the brilliant sparkling chill against his skin is coming from the fact Zim had learned to hide an ice cube in his mouth.

#27 - Fall

He is an ex-elite, yes, the cream of the Irken military – if otherwise certifiably insane – but it amuses Dib when, on one of their frequent visits back to Earth, Zim draws quite obviously closer to him and curses this planet's incomprehensible changing of seasons.

#28 - Forgotten

Every so often, he forgets that despite being taller Dib isn't nearly as strong as an Irken – he only means them as love taps, but then the Dib-thing gets those funny purple marks afterward that belong only to _him_ and Zim, somehow, gets jealous of himself.

#29 - Dance

"You will teach me this human-dancing, worm-baby," he commands from the awkward grasp he's cornered Dib into, "and in doing so you will see Zim outperform your pitiful species yet again."

#30 - Body

It's – he can't explain it – it's superficially not anything out of the ordinary, only skin and flesh and bone at least vaguely analogous to his own – but every time he touches the weird, strangely smooth surface he swears there's a little surge of lightning that even the pak couldn't explain.

#31 - Sacred

When he shows the Dib the bandages, he wonders if exactly how important and sacred they are to him translates well into the pitiful human mind – he knows, and Dib knows too, that for Zim to be serious about something it must be very grave indeed – but still, the first time he strips down to them in the presence of another, especially a filthy human, he almost can't believe his own recklessness.

#32 - Farewells

It's another one of those bizarre ancient traditions he clings to – and when he learns it's known among humans, too, his unconscious refusal to ever tell Dib "goodbye" seems a little less ridiculous.

#33 - World

When Zim had taken him away – he knew it had been for his own good, and yes, even a shockingly visible proof of what Zim felt for him, but the first thing he could feel upon waking up in space was the vague wish that he could have died with Earth.

#34 - Formal

This symposium appears nothing if not cool and relaxed, yes, but Zim reminds him that he cannot underestimate the gravity and formality it really holds; he stands awkwardly behind his "master," trying desperately to keep from fidgeting and at least from asking questions while Zim and the other two elites converse in water-like, incomprehensible classical Irken.

#35 - Fever

Despite his best efforts, almost a week after their departure from earth Dib comes down with a virulent fever – he awakens now and then only to bear witness to Zim's irritation and wrath for pitiful, filthy humans, and their pitiful, filthy immune system, and falls back asleep before Zim can let slip how frustrated it makes him that he does not know _how_ to take care of sick humans.

#36 - Laugh

No – even after everything else had become familiar, he always heard Zim's laugh come through marked with the delightful, subtle sheen of insanity.

#37 - Lies

Lying, he has discovered, is yet another of Zim's unwholesome habits – it's never serious, but still, he knows it's there – but it isn't until he finally confronts Zim about it that he's told "It is annoying to be honest to no purpose, Dib-stink!"

#38 - Forever

Look, no, he'd protest, it's not that he doesn't want to be here – it's the fact that they'd been running in circles after the Massive in this sextant _forever_!

#39 - Overwhelmed

"As your Sacred Band," Zim says softly, nodding in resolution as Dib takes the gunner's seat beside him.

#40 - Whisper

Zim often sounds like he's screaming – alright, he concedes, most of the time – but the times in either anger or lust when instead he lowers his voice to hardly more than a whisper are when Dib swears he is hearing Zim's soul.

#41 - Wait

He's slowly and painstakingly learned all the tricks and secrets of Dib's human body, learning its intricacies and its weaknesses and how unspeakably alien it is to him – but when he can simply smile and hold out until his poor agitated human starts to beg, he almost laughs, and can never resist rolling back needily into the cushions only to tell Dib again that he'll simply have to wait.

#42 - Talk

"Of course," Zim muses, walking pensively around the disguise generator's newest masterpiece, "there's always the unfortunate fact that even if you can speak Irken you won't understand what different antennae positions mean – you pitiful humans and your graceless, insipid single method of communication!"

#43 - Search

"I'll just have to see if the computer still stores any of the little videos we show to teach smeets these things," he says, finally and resignedly, and goes off to rummage through the servers, leaving Dib to gape cluelessly after him.

#44 - Hope

It's a strange feeling – a strange, human feeling – but it's almost welcome, after everything else that's befallen them.

#45 - Eclipse

The behemoth ship blots out the sun as it rises out of the stellar cloud; Dib very silently thanks whatever deity there may be in attendance that the Super-Voot is invisible night-black in the darkness of space.

#46 - Gravity

—two bodies in perfect attraction, drawn irresistibly ever-closer with increasing speed and decreasing reaction time, pulled inexorably against each other and begging of the other a most wonderful acknowledgement – he'd known Newton's laws since the time he could count, but this, this, was the most delightful forbidden measure of science he had yet known—

#47 - Highway

Zim cackles, and Dib holds on while trying his best not to scream – praying, somehow, that he hadn't made the worst mistake of his life in introducing Zim to a 14-cylinder 108,920 horsepower fusion-combustion engine.

#48 - Unknown

He is, after all, the _mighty_ and _infallible Zim!_ – Dib was almost certain he had never heard that strange chirp of surprise before.

#49 - Lock

Well, it's good to know that success hasn't gone to his head – the first time Dib pokes his head out of the quarters on the Massive during a firefight the first dulcet tones of Zim's voice are threats of being pushed out of an airlock.

#50 - Breathe

He vaguely remembers Dib's figure over him – he remembers the darkness, too, the strange interplay between the tug of nothingness and the pulling on his hands – the strange chokes coming through in the flickers of Dib's voice – then, suddenly, he's racked by waves of unspeakable pain, but the darkness stops and only thing he can focus on is the sound of Dib crying and laughing and swearing the sound of his breath is the sweetest thing in the world.


	4. Delta

Ahaha, well, this is actually chronologically the last set of these that I wrote - I'm just publishing them in alphabetical order, haha.

Anyway, I think I've gotten past the need for further disclaimers in these sets, yes? Instead, have all of the smoochy ones which seem to have ended up in here. Enjoy. XD

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δ

#01 - Air

The air is probably the worst thing about this miserable planet – the heat he had at least seen before, but the deplorable way in which this atmosphere holds humidity makes the very fact of going outside begin almost to burn, while Dib only smiles smugly from the lawn in his favorite pair of swim trunks.

#02 - Apples

They've been in space for nearly three months, but Dib had never expected this; apples were far from his favorite fruit, but as Zim cautiously brings one over and commands him to have a taste, so far from home and so long after leaving the Earth behind they seem sweeter to him than the very breath of life.

#03 - Beginning

"So, we need to crack a bottle over the ship, right?" he asks, almost nonchalantly – Dib can hardly believe he would stoop to so human a custom.

#04 - Bugs

Dib fiddles with the strange electric-blue drink, and wonders if he's wandered into some other forbidden territory; but Zim laughs, the dangerous laugh, and explains that it's only what those opposed to the empire often call them.

#05 - Coffee

He thought he was just being hospitable – the Professor had made it when he'd first shown up at their house, after all – but Zim had certainly neglected to mention the fact that coffee was a hyperpotent aphrodisiac for Irkens, and now instead of a pleasant latte between friends as they worked on their project he had only an awkwardly small bedroom in which to contain an unreasonably horny alien.

#06 - Dark

The seven moons laced around the crown of heaven lessen the imposing darkness of the city as Zim leads him around – but the thrill of darting across the rooftops of the Irken capital world is exquisite.

#07 - Despair

He knows Dib can't understand – filthy, pitiful race, contained to their own planet – but he still tries to explain, when asked, the utter, crushing despair that arises from the loneliness of campaigns like his invasion of Earth.

#08 - Doors

The door slides open with hardly a sound; Zim is still piloting them safely and silently out of the solar system, and for a moment he can't sort any words out of the massive pile of feelings he's fighting to contain.

#09 - Drink

Apparently, in the end, it really was just Earth that kept him from doing it – they're here on some godforsaken asteroid bar and while he's looking suspiciously into this glass of _something_, wondering if he can even drink it in the first place, Zim is slamming back shots with the best of them.

#10 - Duty

_That _was only duty – no more than the need he feels to defend his pitiful co-humans – but this, _this_, this is a sacred task entrusted him by no fewer than ten thousand generations before him!

#11 - Earth

He can't help but laugh about it, even now, even sadly, years and years after the Armada's arrival: the little chunk of dirt he keeps in their quarters is the only piece they could find, out of all the great Earth.

#12 - End

"—the end," he says spitefully, while Dib is taken aback by how he had been so easily and coldly he could relate something like that.

#13 - Fall

He can't help but run shrieking around the cockpit as they fall screaming out of orbit – despite all of his training, despite this happening multiple times previously, he has _never_ gotten used to crash landing, and with all of this coming from _him_ Dib is sure, this time, he's finally going to die.

#14 - Fire

It's only afterwards, after they've finally crawled away from the flaming wreckage and dusted themselves off, that Zim starts to crow about his superior life-saving technology, and Dib can only mutter under his breath, "You _jerk_."

#15 - Flexible

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he was fairly sure he'd seen this before, maybe on a late-night B-movie or in a terrible fanfiction – why did aliens always have this convenient ability of absolutely obscene flexibility?

#16 - Flying

He's surprised; when they'd last fought Dib's ability in a cockpit had been laughable, but it seems that since then some of his sister's talent has rubbed off.

#17 - Food

GIR is, of course, immediately absorbed in happily downing the bag of tacos – bag, wrappers, contents and all – but he scoots past the gnomes as quick as he can, knowing even now that they'll take no such bribery.

#18 - Foot

The seemingly iron-loaded boot connects squarely with the hinge of the man's jaw – Dib had been starting to forget that invaders were trained intensively in physical combat, but the sickly crack Torque's mouth makes quickly brings him back to reality.

#19 - Grave

"And if you try again to hurt _my_ Dib-thing," Zim hisses at him, "I'll finish this little ordeal by driving the nails into your coffin myself!"

#20 - Green

Dib is still watching raptly, entirely absorbed by the ruthless efficiency with which everything seems to be run, while Zim sips knowingly at something sweet and mutters, "Passoui eimassin hyderoion, eimoui."

#21 - Head

Even now, he cannot resist – the childlike delight that comes from pushing Dib's buttons is too much to resist, so much so that he does not mind stooping to the juvenile practice of poking fun at his enormous head.

#22 - Hollow

He makes a face as he feels one of the little hands tap lightly against his skull – "I wonder," he hears Zim tease gleefully, "does this knocking sound mean it's hollow?"

#23 - Honor

Burial, he explains, is an abhorrent custom to them – reserved only for cowards who earn the dishonor of being denied second lives.

#24 - Hope

He's almost gotten used to it at this point – each "unauthorized leave of absence" remedied by the soft clicking of metal legs hanging from the ceiling and Zim's soft, dry voice whispering, "I hope you didn't have any plans for tonight, Dib-worm."

#25 - Light

The light shining into his face is entirely too bright to be serious – then he hears Zim's voice calling out gleefully stridently that they're no longer on Earth anymore, pitiful worm-baby, and if you don't want our plan to fail you'd better get used to the local time.

#26 - Lost

He smiles, but it seems out of place; on his features now there is no excessive haughtiness or pride.

#27 - Metal

Never would he have expected Zim to be such an inveterate tinkerer: the way he fiddles around with the hull and fine-tunes the curve of the titanium plated belies an almost human curiosity.

#28 - New

He's much different, without the translator – of course, he won't hear of any perceived inferiority, either his or his translator's, but the human likes the new, strange cleanliness of his accent.

#29 - Old

So now he's sure his – male – _alien_ – lover is nearly ten times his age; it doesn't seem to stop Zim from pushing him insistently back down into the bed with an utterly lascivious grin.

#30 - Peace

"And yes, if you really were wondering, Irken only has _one_ word for it," he mutters sullenly, insisting somewhere that these lessons were important for the mission and that he didn't silently enjoy the Dib-thing's willful, purposeful diversions from the topic.

#31 - Poison

He tilts his head back and gulps down whatever this poisonous concoction was; he had gotten far too used to these things, to the fact that the parties only started when _he_ walked in, the fleeting, pathetic human popularity-and-anonymity-in-one, he had never expected Dib to show up again after so many years.

#32 - Pretty

"Well," he purred, shifting himself around and repositioning himself over Dibs' hips, "I suppose you're _okay_ – but you're still pretty far from good."

#33 - Rain

Again with this insufferable _rain_ – it's not even the water that bothers him anymore, it's the fact that every time it happens Dib seems to forget he's an _elite Irken invader_ and is _perfectly_ capable of taking care of himself!

#34 - Regret

He laughs, after a moment, and again Dib feels as if he's trying to tell the human boy he's stupid – but the green alien only explains so proudly and haughtily that Zim _never_ regrets.

#35 - Roses

He had apparently learned of the human idea that roses were the flowers of love – but apparently not well enough, as he had taken the very nice bouquet and had immediately used it to beat Dib over the head.

#36 - Secret

He's coming along steadily enough with Irken – he feels like a kid when they do it, but he's gotten good enough that he and Zim can use it as a secret code when they're out in public.

#37 - Snakes

—and that _tongue_; sexy or no, every time Zim laughed or screamed or gave him that devil's grin and showed exactly what it could do, it was one of the strangest and most obviously non-human things about him; and God, Dib thought, with _that_, it was no fault of his that he was constantly getting the most perverted ideas!

#38 - Snow

"Foul, filthy traps," he mumbled from his perch at the window, "no amount of enticing will bring _Zim_ out of his base into this _mess_ only for the Dib-thing and his snow-fights!"

#39 - Solid

Zim is always so surprisingly solid and weighty – he thought at first it was just the pak, with all of its nonsensical hammerspace, but when he pounces across the cockpit and situates himself intently across Dib's hips such scientific inquisition is quickly left by the wayside.

#40 - Spring

It's an absolutely _bizarre_ sensation, at first, but Zim is moving too quickly for him to protest, and he has to admit it is faster for Zim to drag him along like this than for them to wait for Dib's still only-human legs; but the strange quick spring of the spider legs, he swears, will never not unsettle him.

#41 - Stable

When he finally stabilizes – checking carefully to make sure the human-thing _is_ still asleep – Zim can't help but give a sigh of relief: he had certainly never expected himself to brave Earth contagions on purpose.

#42 - Strange

The eyes, the skin, the antennae – does he even need to say it anymore?

#43 - Summer

First, it's because he likes Earth best in the summer – but second, and almost more, he likes the squirmy way Zim looks at him whenever he dives into the swimming pool.

#44 - Taboo

"It's unspeakable for an invader to have these feelings," he explains, breathless, exhilarated and (though he'd rather die than tell Dib) absolutely terrified as they take a pause from this delightful human 'fooling around.'

#45 - Ugly

"Nope," he concludes cheerfully, even as he yanks Dib forcefully down on top of him, "naked humans are still so unspeakably ugly."

#46 - War

The first time he sees Zim in the elite armor – even without being Irken, even for their long-standing enmity and still only-recently introduced détente, his inner five-year old can't help but _flip out _at how cool it looks.

#47 - Water

Rolling his eyes when Dib _presumes_ to have a better grip on Irken physiology than he does, _insisting_ that he can't drink it because it's based in water, he only takes another swig of the little bright orange drink and says nonchalantly, "You just don't get it, do you?"

#48 - Welcome

He looks down, suspiciously, at that ridiculous welcome mat – it's still here after all those years that Zim's been on earth – but he can't, ever, bring himself to actually _believe_ it.

#49 - Winter

He ends up going outside, anyway, and when he feels the soft acidic thwack of a snowball on the back of his head he whirls around on Dib's little snow-fort and pulls an entire arsenal out of his pak.

#50 - Wood

How he ever learned to twirl a pencil with only three fingers, Dib had never figured out.


	5. Epsilon

Hurrah! I'm finally done these :)

Anyway, since these are the last set, I'm really interested in seeing what you guys think! Would you be interested in seeing the story that came out of these? Let me know somehow and if I get some kind of response I might actually start working on that fic. XD

That said - enjoy!

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ε

#01 – Motion

Spiders did _not_ scare him – it just disconcerted him seeing something (at least vaguely) humanoid move that way.

#02 – Cool

The first time they touched confirmed what until then he had only suspected: Irkens were cold-blooded.

#03 - Young

Whenever Dib asked, the response was always the same – "I'm only _sixteen_!" – and even if Dib pointed out that that wasn't what he meant, it was always followed by the same pronouncement – "Foolish smeetling!"

#04 - Last

When – later – the professor actually thought to ask him, he knew that it wasn't on purpose that it sounded so inept and mathematical – that was the mind that let him create all those things, after all – but yes, he would explain, even if he wouldn't change it, this was the last way he thought his life would turn out.

#05 - Wrong

Well – he had long since stopped worrying over whether or not it was 'wrong' to feel something like this, first for an alien (!) and only second for another male; if he had to think about it, he supposed, it was really only the icing on the insanity cake.

#06 - Gentle

Irkens were never gentle; Zim knew how to be not-rough or not-violent, but never gentle.

#07 - One

"Hold on for one of your pathetic Earthian minutes," Zim sighed irritably. "Paks aren't things to be easily tinkered with."

#08 - Thousand

Dib is utterly floored when, instead of reacting to the fact of his intrusion, Zim without flinching simply zooms in on the ringed blue planet with its innumerable satellites and says softly, "Only one moon is so very pathetic."

#09 - King

High on his throne, indeed, with all the splendor and pomp his gold could command – what king, or what Tallest, Dib thought faintly, would not count himself yet poor and desolate without this?

#10 - Learn

At that, the alien let off a wicked grin before pointing out softly, "Translator implants aren't made to bond with other species – and you've never heard _real_ Irken."

#11 - Blur

He hardly has a second to realize that he's said something wrong before the lightning-flash blur of metal and circuits pins him to the wall – he's already realized his mistake, and the furious look on Zim's face is only reinforcing the fact.

#12 - Wait

"No, Earth monkey," he said softly and cruelly, "it is in fact _you_ who will have to wait."

#13 - Change

"It is only the most logical solution," he said in an off-handed way, as Dib looked over the little package like a child on Christmas morning, "and if you stop drooling over it you'll be able to note that I've changed it around a bit so that it should fit you – you have no idea how hard it was encoding it to change your metabolic rate to an Irken one."

#14 - Command

The megalomania had intrigued him, enticed him; the familiarity that the same moods and commands had gained with time, bound him forever.

#15 - Hold

"Hold this," he says impatiently, not daring to trust an idiot human to tamper with the intricate engineering under the ship's hull but seeing nothing wrong with using that same human as a tool rack.

#16 - Need

"Your filthy human _needing_ of things needs no explaining, Dib-stink – I'm another species, not an idiot!"

#17 - Vision

"Alas," the green boy cried, feigning seriousness, "I would be far better able to watch this Earth-movie were my vision not impeded my your gargantuan head."

#18 - Attention

He resented neither his father nor his sister, ever – but the constant, consuming attention, be it packaged in the avatar either of hate or affection, quickly became an addiction.

#19 - Soul

His soul had always belonged to the study of that which we otherwise couldn't explain: it was only with time that he came to realize that he who breaks a thing to understand it is not worthy of the knowing.

#20 - Picture

It was like an archaeological expedition, going through the human's room and fiddling with his things, and the best part came when he found the shutter-action still recording device; Dib hated the surprise of being "photographed," and so the little machine amused him.

#21 - Fool

Zim was a fool, yes, Purple conceded – but the human thing was disturbingly, dangerously tall.

#22 - Mad

He always got mad at Dib – sometimes seriously, sometimes less so – but it couldn't kill his innate curiosity for that which was unfamiliar.

#23 - Child

The _filthy_ dirt-child – and to think, it had ended up like this!

#24 – Now

Now he had forgiven him, of course – it had been a long and treacherous road to this point – but he had not yet, for all of his bravado, summoned the courage to let the human once again look inside his pak.

#25 - Shadow

Tak had been only the second Irken he had ever seen, and even if he would never admit it she left an impression on him; every anonymous object that fell in a shadowy alleyway brought back, for only a second, the thrill and heart-clutching fear that their common enemy had inspired.

#26 - Goodbye

He knew – somewhere, always – that he would have to bid the Earth goodbye.

#27 - Hide

Zim had shuffled him unceremoniously into the ship when it happened – he had been too distraught to actually believe it what had been going on, and well, it was powered-up and faster and completely unrecognizable; for the unspeakable plans of high treason they had it would do for a hiding place.

#28 - Fortune

He had spent nearly a fortune on spy cameras and monitoring equipment – but still, months, nothing!

#29 - Safe

He never faulted the Dib-thing for coming to the base when he was "outed" – it was, after all, a gloriously safe and impregnable fortress, well-defended from external threats and the best stupidity the other humans had ever been able to throw at it.

#30 - Ghost

The little green boy cocked an eyebrow at him for that, telling him pointedly from the ground he had landed on that "just because your crude scaring technique works on all of the other human worm-babies there is _no way_ it would work on an Irken invader – no way!"

#31 - Book

Books – another one of the curious antiquities this planet swarmed with, and Dib had amassed hundreds of them.

#32 - Eye

He thought he'd gotten used to the idea of Zim being an alien long ago – after the paranoia and hyperactive imagination had melted away, and, after all, he used the term "used to" quite loosely – but when he saw Zim nonchalantly pop an eye back into its socket he nearly passed out.

#33 - Never

"Never, Dib-thing," he whispered, with a devilish smile, "_never_ presume you know what my body can do."

#34 - Sing

It's a soft and mushy habit he's picked up from being on this planet for too long – and, he suspects, from being around GIR too – but the Dib-worm seems to have no problem with it, and he's not sure which part of this is worse.

#35 – Sudden

At first, yes, it is sudden and unexpected, a horrible cliché that even he wishes hadn't come true, but, somewhere, finally, he forces himself to admit that yes – these were those terrible _feelings_ that everyone had been warned about.

#36 - Stop

The blood rushes out of his brain as they pull out of an impossible stratospheric swan dive – the last thing he hears before consciousness stops is Zim laughing at his pitiful human circulatory organs.

#37 - Time

Come to think of it, Zim laughed at his human organs a lot over the years – even after he had 'fixed' everything himself and done the unthinkable of bringing a human into the Irken version of immortality.

#38 - Wash

He had only asked for something to use for the wash – when the green alien boy presented him with a bar of chalk that smelled suspiciously of bacon, he decided that perhaps doing the laundry could wait.

#39 - Torn

It's strange – he so rarely allows Dib to see him on the losing end of a fight – and it's not even like there's anything wrong with him afterwards, thanks to the pak; but even for all of its marvels the pak does not mend uniforms, at least not right away, and the sight of a tiny sliver of green peeking through sends an indecipherable chill down the human boy's spine.

#40 - History

They did, after all, have an impressive history: they were tall, taller even than most of the Irken elite, and despite their laughable level of technological advancement they seemed hell-bent enough on destroying things (and each other) since the beginning of their recorded history – if the ones he knew now weren't so unspeakably incompetent, he'd almost have a sort of respect for them.

#41 - Power

It was a power game – a delightful one, but one that neither was willing to lose.

#42 - Bother

If the idea hadn't horrified him, he would have thought that Zim _liked_ bothering him like this.

#43 - God

"We used to have thousands of gods," Zim explained matter-of-factly, "all of which were precisely as useless as yours."

#44 - Wall

It's a strange feeling, staying here, but he clings to the fragile and transparent idea of normalcy it presents him – Zim is beating his head against the wall after another terrible incident involving GIR and the kitchen appliances but he just walks past and starts to set things back to order with a faint smile.

#45 - Naked

"Looking into the pak – and that's precisely what you did, filthy stink-child – is one of the most intimate things an Irken can allow," he hissed furiously, "far more so than you ridiculous humans rolling around in the nude."

#46 - Drive

"Just because Irkens are programmed doesn't mean the more basic drives of nature don't exist any more," the computer points out to him, and as he stood there, stunned, praying to God there was a way to wipe that out of his mind forever, he swore he could hear the vile machine laughing.

#47 - Harm

It was the first time he had seen Zim angry – really angry, not only the usual irritation he saved to lavish on his inferiors and especially on Dib – but later he would look back and realize that, at the time, the promise that Zim, and only Zim, would have the pleasure of ripping the beating heart out of his chest, was (if bizarrely and uncomfortably) a sort of declaration of affection.

#48 - Precious

He keeps the little trinkets in their quarters – no one else sees them, save Zim, who pretends not to understand – but so far from home, even the smallest trinkets have acquired the most precious of meanings.

#49 - Hunger

No; even after this much time spent in observation, he still couldn't explain why most food burned and stung but mountains of sweets and junk food formed a currency dearer to the Irkens than gold.

#50 - Believe

"Oh no," he explained, "they're nothing like your pitiful sacrosanct leadership here – you humans are quite paranoid of believing otherwise, yes? – and anyway, this plan has nothing of treason in it; the Tallest are the cream of the Irken elite, true, but their position has been taken in coups back well near ten thousand years."


End file.
